Pit People VO Spotlight: Piper Faye

Piper’s got that voice that naturally matches what we were looking for. Pipistrella’s a youthful innocent princess dealt a nasty hand in life – forced to find her own way and learn right from wrong through trial and error. Pipistrella is a tough role to fill as she’s a softy at heart but lives in a violent world, so she basically needs to be yelling to a certain degree to match the atmosphere.

Piper and Monica are friends IRL which is extra great because both Pipistrella and Pandora are closely related in Pit People.

“Piper is pretty great to work with. There’s a certain amount of care that’s apparent there with how she approached things, whether it was delving in and requesting any and all reference material on the story and character or dissecting gibberish with me.

“I recall after a few too many back and forths on chat and email, having my first phone conversation with Piper to go over Pipistrella’s gibberish lines. As Dan pointed out, she truly has this natural voice that embodied what we were looking for. I hope this doesn’t come off weird, but she naturally has one of those VO actor or announcer, radio persona type voices. It almost sounds like there’s production on it, but it’s 100% natural. That in itself is a gift.” – Ian Moreno (on his experience working with Piper)

Many thanks to Piper for taking the time to respond to our questions about her experience working with us!

Did you receive any direction from our team for the character(s) you voiced? If yes, what was requested?

I had the privilege of running through a live session with Ian. We wanted to deliver the lines in such a way that they sounded like regular conversation. Their idea for Pip was to have a soft, almost innocent nature, while at the same time, bringing confidence and energy to the lines.

How much of the game did you know before creating the voice(s)?

To be honest I hadn’t known much, just that it was turn based strategy. Once they shared with me the story of Pipistrella and the unique and magical planet of gibberish on which she resided, I was hooked. The game is an amalgam of everyone’s brilliant ideas. I’m in love with it, really.

What was your creative process in creating the dialogue for your character(s)?

It was a bit of a challenge, as Pip is a bit different from the rest of them. She has a very specific kind of gibberish, heavy on the “Puh” sounds. It was a challenge keeping it gentle with such puffy and powerful consonants. In order to find the perfect balance, I took a lot of inspiration from the Hawaiian language; soft and melodic, yet powerful.

What was your favorite part of creating the voices?

Getting to speak in gibberish of course! But also, getting to bring Pip to life. She’s found a very special place in my heart.

What’s your favorite piece of gibberish?

Pee-ba-da-po-pala-pan-pee-po-ne-pa! — Say that 3 times fast!

Sound Clips

Below are some VO clips from the game as well as a couple examples of the variations in inflection when delivering “words” for Pipistrella.